SX280 - battery life shooting video

[factoryguy]

UPDATED May 5:

I apologize to the forum for mixing two different problems.  They are unrelated.

Problem #1:  User error.  I thought I was using a class 6 SD card but I was wrong. The yellow "!" indicates a pathologically slow card.  Upgrading to a class 10 resolved this problem.

Problem #2: UNRESOLVED.  Red battery indicator comes on prematurely.  On a fresh charge, it'll turn red after recording for a couple of minutes.  On a partially drained battery, it turns red immediately upon entering movie mode or pressing the record button.  Turn the camera off and then right back on in "still" mode and it shows full charge and works fine ... until trying to shoot video.  I have not precisely measured recording times but it'll record for at least 20 (maybe 30?) minutes while flashing red.

[tprevett]

I too was holding on hoping for a fix, as I really like the pictures this camera takes.  I successfully updated the firmware, however, it still exhibits the "Red Battery of Death".. lol

I am past my return window by a couple of weeks, however, I just sent an email off to Amazon requesting a full refund.

Hopefully they will allow it.

Can somebody recommend a replacement camera which will take similar quality pictures?

Thanks

[scupking]

I'm also past my return window with amazon but like you tprevett, sent an email for full refund because of this defective camera....

[RCJ]

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@dswansonil wrote:

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@scupking wrote:

Updated to 1.0.2.0 and as soon as I started taking video the red battery light started flashing. Turned the camera off and back on and shows full battery again. Also looks like the auto white balance is messed up on 1.0.2.0. White things come out as yellow now unless I manualy set the white balance......

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So it still sounds like the battery power level reporting bug is still there and, as is almost classic with updates to complex systems, a new bug has appeared that their in-house testing didn't discover.  More egg on the Canon face.  I'm trying to find a local store that has both the Lumix ZS30 and the Sony HX50 so I can do a hands on comparision.  I really want an all-in-one still and video camera with decent battery life to avoid having to haul separates around.

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Interesting. I haven't seen the battery warning yet, nor the white balance problem, after the update. As to your last sentence: Yes, that is the holy grail. I would love to find the same thing. But I'm increasingly convined that it's really not possible with current tech, at least in a camera body that'll fit in a shirt pocket. Packing all those power-sucking features into a camera powered by a battery that small just doesn't work. It's the same with mobile phone technology. People want -- or think they want -- 100 features in an electronic device, but there's a battery life price to be paid with every one of them. 

[filipb]

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@RCJ wrote:

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@dswansonil wrote:

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@scupking wrote:

Updated to 1.0.2.0 and as soon as I started taking video the red battery light started flashing. Turned the camera off and back on and shows full battery again. Also looks like the auto white balance is messed up on 1.0.2.0. White things come out as yellow now unless I manualy set the white balance......

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So it still sounds like the battery power level reporting bug is still there and, as is almost classic with updates to complex systems, a new bug has appeared that their in-house testing didn't discover.  More egg on the Canon face.  I'm trying to find a local store that has both the Lumix ZS30 and the Sony HX50 so I can do a hands on comparision.  I really want an all-in-one still and video camera with decent battery life to avoid having to haul separates around.

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Interesting. I haven't seen the battery warning yet, nor the white balance problem, after the update. As to your last sentence: Yes, that is the holy grail. I would love to find the same thing. But I'm increasingly convined that it's really not possible with current tech, at least in a camera body that'll fit in a shirt pocket. Packing all those power-sucking features into a camera powered by a battery that small just doesn't work. It's the same with mobile phone technology. People want -- or think they want -- 100 features in an electronic device, but there's a battery life price to be paid with every one of them. 

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How is this possible?  Such an obvious problem with white balans and two people have it differently?

Heisenbugs?

Come on ...

[RCJ]

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@filipb wrote:

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@RCJ wrote:

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@dswansonil wrote:

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@scupking wrote:

Updated to 1.0.2.0 and as soon as I started taking video the red battery light started flashing. Turned the camera off and back on and shows full battery again. Also looks like the auto white balance is messed up on 1.0.2.0. White things come out as yellow now unless I manualy set the white balance......

---

So it still sounds like the battery power level reporting bug is still there and, as is almost classic with updates to complex systems, a new bug has appeared that their in-house testing didn't discover.  More egg on the Canon face.  I'm trying to find a local store that has both the Lumix ZS30 and the Sony HX50 so I can do a hands on comparision.  I really want an all-in-one still and video camera with decent battery life to avoid having to haul separates around.

---

Interesting. I haven't seen the battery warning yet, nor the white balance problem, after the update. As to your last sentence: Yes, that is the holy grail. I would love to find the same thing. But I'm increasingly convined that it's really not possible with current tech, at least in a camera body that'll fit in a shirt pocket. Packing all those power-sucking features into a camera powered by a battery that small just doesn't work. It's the same with mobile phone technology. People want -- or think they want -- 100 features in an electronic device, but there's a battery life price to be paid with every one of them. 

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How is this possible?  Such an obvious problem with white balans and two people have it differently?

Heisenbugs?

Come on ...

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No idea. All I know is I've shot 6-8 minutes of video with mine after the update, in about 20-sec segments, and white balance looks normal to me, both on the camera screen and on my monitor. Also no battery warning light yet, so that in itself is an improvement. 

[dswansonil]

Interesting. I haven't seen the battery warning yet, nor the white balance problem, after the update. As to your last sentence: Yes, that is the holy grail. I would love to find the same thing. But I'm increasingly convined that it's really not possible with current tech, at least in a camera body that'll fit in a shirt pocket. Packing all those power-sucking features into a camera powered by a battery that small just doesn't work. It's the same with mobile phone technology. People want -- or think they want -- 100 features in an electronic device, but there's a battery life price to be paid with every one of them. 

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I would be willing to trade size for battery life rather than demand a shirt pocket camera and would also be happy to buy AA or AAA lithium disposables rather than have a rechargeable.

[RCJ]

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@dswansonil wrote:

Interesting. I haven't seen the battery warning yet, nor the white balance problem, after the update. As to your last sentence: Yes, that is the holy grail. I would love to find the same thing. But I'm increasingly convined that it's really not possible with current tech, at least in a camera body that'll fit in a shirt pocket. Packing all those power-sucking features into a camera powered by a battery that small just doesn't work. It's the same with mobile phone technology. People want -- or think they want -- 100 features in an electronic device, but there's a battery life price to be paid with every one of them. 

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I would be willing to trade size for battery life rather than demand a shirt pocket camera and would also be happy to buy AA or AAA lithium disposables rather than have a rechargeable.

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Me also.

[3dogpottery]

Performed the firmware update.  Took a long video.  No problems.  Looks like to me that the upgrade worked.

[videophan]

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@scupking wrote:

Updated to 1.0.2.0 and as soon as I started taking video the red battery light started flashing. Turned the camera off and back on and shows full battery again. Also looks like the auto white balance is messed up on 1.0.2.0. White things come out as yellow now unless I manualy set the white balance......

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I haven't seen the white balance problem.  What I have seen is that during movie capture, the lens seems to be slower at focusing on an object while zooming. The movies were shot indoors by panning around a room and focusing in on select objects. Also, while not zooming as I move the frame from a close object (a tree) to a far object (a house across the street), the camera seems to struggle more to get the correct object in focus. I have seen a video of the lumix ZS30 performing the same focusing and it handles it very well, but I remember the SX280 doing a pretty good job as well. All of this may be a function of lower light than I have had before while doing the same videos/tests

I took 5 stills and have shot eight minutes of video starting with a fully charged battery. I have zoomed much more than I would normally during video and the eight minutes of video is comprised of 5 short videos shot indoors. The low battery light has not flashed yet but I have seen one of the bars disappear on the battery level indicator during the last video.

[filipb]

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@videophan wrote:

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@scupking wrote:

Updated to 1.0.2.0 and as soon as I started taking video the red battery light started flashing. Turned the camera off and back on and shows full battery again. Also looks like the auto white balance is messed up on 1.0.2.0. White things come out as yellow now unless I manualy set the white balance......

---

I haven't seen the white balance problem.  What I have seen is that during movie capture, the lens seems to be slower at focusing on an object while zooming. The movies were shot indoors by panning around a room and focusing in on select objects. Also, while not zooming as I move the frame from a close object (a tree) to a far object (a house across the street), the camera seems to struggle more to get the correct object in focus. I have seen a video of the lumix ZS30 performing the same focusing and it handles it very well, but I remember the SX280 doing a pretty good job as well. All of this may be a function of lower light than I have had before while doing the same videos/tests

I took 5 stills and have shot eight minutes of video starting with a fully charged battery. I have zoomed much more than I would normally during video and the eight minutes of video is comprised of 5 short videos shot indoors. The low battery light has not flashed yet but I have seen one of the bars disappear on the battery level indicator during the last video.

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In the update description it says that the battery gain of 20% is achieved "through a reduction in the power consumption of the optical zoom."  I wonder if the effects of focussing you notice have to do with that?